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Helena the Armenian
Helena has recently returned from a long exile in Trebizond, and is once again making an appearance at the courts of the antonian ventrue. She seems to have accepted the fact that she has been outranked by her younger brethren Anna Komnene. Description A coldly, classically beautiful woman, clearly of noble birth given her haughty bearing and fine clothes. Her face is heart-shaped, with a narrow jaw and wide cheek bones, and her hair is long and a lustrous black. She wears expensive but understated jewellery and a slender dagger hangs from her belt. Bio In her mortal years Helena was an Armenian princess, the third daughter of King Gakik-Abas of the semi-independent Kingdom of Kars. Sent to Constantinople at the tender age of 11 as a hostage to the good behaviour of her father, she was raised in the imperial household along with a great many others in similar straits. Eventually she was wedded to a distant cousin of General Alexius Comnenus, and while thoroughly Hellenised in many respects she never forgot that she was an outsider. While never truly accepted at court as one of their own, the obscure and exotic eastern princess plied the treacherous waters of Byzantine politics as one born to them. She bore her husband Basil two sons and a daughter, and while the marriage was never one of passion, she was devastated when she heard of his death at the Battle of Manzikert in the Year of our Lord, 1071. She managed to continue on, despite being a young, beautiful and wealthy widow, for 7 years seeing to the security of her children before her days ended. Helena the Armenian was brought across in the Year of Or Lord 1081, a decade after Belisarius returned to Constantinople to resume his charge as Military Prefect of the Antonians. Feeling like an outsider after his centuries of absence not just from the Cainite society but also from the much more mercurial mortal one, he conceived of a need to quickly refamiliarise himself with the capital from the perspective of a mortal outsider. He seized upon the intelligent and shrewd Armenian as just the teacher that he required. She instructed him to the best of her abilities, even accompanying the Military Prefect on several of Alexius Comnenus’ campaigns in the east. Finally she was judged to be ready by Belisarius, and he petitioned Basilius Caius for the right to Embrace his loyal servant. Between them, the armies of Alexius and John Comnenus (with the aid of their secret mentor, Belisarius ) reconquered much of the eastern territory lost as a result of the disaster at Manzikert. In the Year of Our Lord, 1123, Helena was named as Eastern Praetorian Prefect when Andronicus Ducas, her predecessor, was slain by Seljuk Gangrel while visiting Ephesus.She travelled with her sire for the remainder of John’s campaigns in the east before his untimely death (rumoured to have been at the hands of a an Assamite assassin). Helena’s fortunes have waned along with those of Belisarius. Fifty years ago she was in frequent contact with every Byzantine prince and Scion family in the east. Now only Prince Niketas of Nicaea is in regular contact, and then only on a quid pro quo basis. She is not completely without influence however, for she is known as the most direct route to the ear of her eminent sire. She keeps close to his side during all Trinity gatherings, and often lingers a while after he retires so that others may petition her for an audience with Belisarius. She performed this function at the Blood Feast in the coterie’s honour, where they saw both Nicepherus’ and Anna’s faction lobbying for her favour. She is known to have friends among the Baron’s Gangrel, particularly Verpus Sauzezh and the other Turks, and they visit with her regularly in courtyard of the decrepit Old Palace. Helena is also a strident and hostile critic of the greedy Latins, and has been heard to say more than once that if only the western provinces of the empire could be secured against them then the east could follow. She is known to work towards this aim, usually around the flaccid attempts of the incompetent Basil of Thessalonica. Category:Characters Category:Elder Category:Constantinople Category:Camarilla Category:NPC Category:Antonian Category:Ventrue